Girl fears war with Russia and appeals to the Federal Chancellor
Created: 01/07/2023Updated: 01/07/2023 10:35 p.m
By: Peter Pauls
Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer at his desk, letter from Elisabeth from 1951. © dpa / Federal Chancellor Adenauer House Foundation
Fearing a war with Russia, Elisabeth proposed to Chancellor Adenauer in 1951 a contribution to solving the conflict - basically she formulated a basic diplomatic rule, says our guest author Peter Pauls.
Cologne – More than 71 years ago, at the end of 1951, eleven-year-old Elisabeth from Kevelaer (North Rhine-Westphalia) wrote a letter to the then Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.
As a five-year-old she had to experience in Rolandseck in Remagen near Bonn how bombs fell and detonated around her in the final phase of World War II.
Miraculously, the explosive device that fell in front of the house where she and her family were staying at the time did not explode.
A dud.
Since then, the child has had a heightened sense of what he heard on the news broadcasts or picked up from adult speeches.
Letter to Konrad Adenauer: "I would be happy if you responded to my suggestion"
"I have a big request for you," she wrote to "Dear Dr.
Adenauer".
“I hear so often that we have no peace with Russia.
I always have to think about the possibility of war and I can no longer sleep peacefully.” In beautiful cursive handwriting, she suggests to Adenauer that the dictator Josef Stalin and his foreign minister Wischinsky be invited and entertained in order to solve the pending problems the next day.
“Maybe then they will say yes to all the proposals.
How nice that would be, and we could all be completely calm again and without the fear that war would break out again.
I would be happy if you respond to my suggestion.
Write to me very soon.” The full text of the letter can be found here.
Adenauer actually answered.
"You don't need to be afraid that we will have war",
wrote the then 75-year-old Chancellor to “dear Elisabeth”.
"The good Lord will help that we keep peace."
"My parents had no idea about the letter to Chancellor Adenauer"
Elisabeth's letter was discovered a few weeks ago in the archive of the Bundeskanzler-Adenauer-Haus Foundation.
The Cologne chancellor's grandson, the notary Konrad Adenauer, has been on the board for 32 years.
He sent me a copy and after a few phone calls I managed to speak to the writer, who is now in her 80s but sounds like a young woman on the phone.
Did her parents help her to formulate the letter?
"They had no idea." And how did they find out about it?
"I was summoned to my father's office.
He said: You got a letter.
There's an eagle on it.” Were the parents proud of their daughter?
"I think so." How does she think about the eleven-year-old girl who took heart at the time?
"I get goose bumps just thinking about it."
Basically, Elisabeth
formulated a basic diplomatic rule: You should try to stay in touch and approach each other.
Will that succeed in the case of the Ukraine war
?
The German government has now welcomed the Ukrainian Foreign Minister's proposal for an international peace conference.
But both warring parties belong to a conversation
and in the best case they share something like values or a culture.
► 24RHEIN guest author Peter Pauls is chairman of the Cologne press club.
Before that, he was editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper
Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger for many years.
This article is from the Cologne Press Club newsletter, which you can subscribe to here
This reminds me of Nelson Mandela, who averted a civil war in South Africa as the chief negotiator for the black majority.
In 1993, the murder of black freedom fighter Chris Hani had escalated the situation between blacks and right-wing whites to such an extent that civil war was to be expected.
"If we fight each other, the country we both love will be destroyed"
Mandela's interlocutor was former Army General Constand Viljoen, who was considered a likely leader of an insurgency.
"Now we're sitting at this table and we're talking," Mandela recalled to journalists, one of whom was me, of the conversation.
"If we fight each other, much blood will be spilled and the country we both love will be destroyed.
And yet one day we will have to sit at this table again to find peace.
Why don't we do it now and destroy our common country?” Mandela's words won over Viljoen, who was henceforth called “Judas” in reactionary circles.
The civil war did not take place and Nelson Mandela became the first black and democratically elected president of all South Africans in 1994.
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Let's hope that the Ukraine war will come to an end.
It's not just a country and its people that are ruined, the aggressor also ruins himself.
There are no winners in this war.
Perhaps a man of the stature of Nelson Mandela will be found?
Or at least a spark of insight?
(pp/IDZRNRW)
Documented: Elisabeth wrote this to Chancellor Adenauer in 1951
Dear Dr. Adenauer!
My name is Elizabeth and I am 11 years old.
I live in Kevelaer.
I have a big request for you.
I hear so often that we have no peace with Russia.
I always have to think that there could be war and I can no longer sleep peacefully.
I would like to make you a suggestion: I have heard before that the Russian Mr. Vishinsky does not sleep well.
Now, if you would invite him to Germany with Stalin and really spoil them here and, above all, give you a nice, soft bed after a very good meal.
Wouldn't that help that you could negotiate successfully with them the next day?
Maybe then they'll say yes to all the suggestions.
How nice would that be and we could all be completely calm again and without the fear that war would break out again.
I would be happy if you respond to my suggestion.
Write to me very soon.
I'm excited!!!
Finally, I wish you a very Merry Christmas.
Kind regards ,
Your Elisabeth
(Kevelaer, December 14, 1951)
Documented: Chancellor Adenauer replied to Elisabeth
Dear Elizabeth!
Your letter of the 14th.
Mts.
I received.
You don't need to be afraid that we're going to war.
The good Lord will help that we keep peace.
I wish you and your parents a Merry Christmas and all the best for 1952.
Yours sincerely ,
Adenauer
(Rhöndorf/Rhein, December 24, 1951)
